Rewriting History
by Sarah1281
Summary: "Tell me you're not pregnant." Cameron and Chase talk for the first time since they finalized their divorce.


Rewriting History

Disclaimer: I do not own House, M.D.

Note: Takes place somewhere between the season seven episodes "Massage Therapy" and the as-of-yet unaired episode "Office Politics."

Chase stared at the ringing phone for a second, uncertain if he were actually going to answer it. He recognized the Chicago number as belonging to his ex-wife and he hadn't so much as spoken to her since he had signed the divorce papers that one time the hospital had been locked down and…

Quickly he picked up the phone. "Tell me you're not pregnant," he pleaded.

"I'm not pregnant," Cameron assured him. "That's a rather odd way to answer the phone. Did you not check the Caller ID? If so, I'm not sure I want to know how you've been handling being single again."

"Oh, God no," Chase said, shuddering at the thought. "Imagine if House had called for whatever reason and I said that. He'd _never_ let me live it down. Ever."

"Okay, so you knew it was me and still felt the need to say that?" Cameron asked. "Why?"

"Well, I haven't heard from you since the lockdown at PPTH and I didn't exactly have a condom with me so…" Chase trailed off, figuring that that was enough for her to see where he was coming from.

"So you were able to realize that the lack of a condom might cause a problem but you didn't remember that I've been on the pill since before we got married?" Cameron asked skeptically.

Chase flushed. "It had been awhile since you left and so for all I knew, you had stopped taking it."

"Yes, because we all know that there are absolutely no consequences for going off of it and that once I started having a sex life again I could just start taking it that first day and have it work perfectly," Cameron said sarcastically.

"The pill isn't always one hundred percent effective, you know," Chase said defensively.

"Nothing but abstinence is, I suppose," Cameron conceded.

"So is there a reason you called?" Chase inquired. "Not like I'm trying to be rude or don't want to hear from you or anything but I haven't heard from you in over two months."

"And you were the one avoiding my calls before then," Cameron countered.

"That's because I wanted our divorce to be a little more personal than 'Oh, Robert, you're a terrible soulless person like House and so be a dear and sign over these divorce papers I'm faxing to you'," Chase explained.

"Oh, that is _so_ not what happened!" Cameron exclaimed.

"Really?" Chase challenged. "Because I seem to recall you telling me that you were leaving me because the fact that I didn't want to move to Chicago meant that I no longer had any sense of right or wrong."

"No, I wanted you to move to Chicago to get away from House's influence and whatever else convinced you that murdering a man was an acceptable thing to do," Cameron disagreed. "You chose to stay in that environment and to me that indicated that as much as you _claimed_ to have issues with it, you really didn't. I was trying to accept what you did and knew that you couldn't change it but I couldn't accept you being unrepentant about it."

"I did what I had to do," Chase said stubbornly. "Surely you've heard how the moderates have taken power and are finally ending such blatant human rights violations. Maybe in some other country killing him wouldn't have done anything but cause a new dictator to rise up in his place but Dibala was pretty much the only thing standing in the way of his country and a better future. You can't tell me that killing him was wrong."

"Sure I can," Cameron argued. "I'm not going to argue about the comparative ethics with you _again_ but even if it was the lesser of two evils it was still murder and still not **right**. Maybe, and I mean **maybe**, I will grant you that it was for the best. That still doesn't make it right."

Chase was silent for a moment. "You know, the last time we talked you claimed that you didn't leave because of that whole incident but rather because you didn't love me – but wait, you lied! You did!"

"I did love you," Cameron said firmly. "In a lot of ways, I still do. I just couldn't be _with_ you. I had a kneejerk reaction that if you were capable of what you did then you couldn't have been the man that I had really fallen in love with and so I didn't love who you really were but…I did. I did love you, that just wasn't enough to save our marriage."

"What about when you told me that you are too screwed up to have a functional relationship with someone?" Chase asked her.

"My two big long-term relationships ended badly. The first, predictably, died of the fatal disease I knew he had when I married him. The second, surprisingly, ended when you murdered someone and was okay with it. I don't think that that's an unreasonable position for me to take," Cameron replied. "Given my not-so-great track record, I am kind of wondering if perhaps the problem here is me but that doesn't make my reservations about what you did any less valid."

"Then why did you make it seem like you were just using Dibala as an excuse to run away if it really was that big of a problem with you?" Chase asked, baffled.

"Well, you wanted to have this big talk and if you thought that there was any way you could have saved our marriage you might not have signed the divorce papers," Cameron pointed out. "It was easier that way."

Well, that was a surprise. "Look, Allison…" Chase sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "I can understand you having a problem with what I did. I had a huge problem with it, too, and was a mess for weeks which is why I ended up eventually telling you about it. I killed a man and I will never forgive myself for that. Killing _Dibala_, though? I won't apologize for that."

"Do yourself a favor, Robert: When you find someone new, don't tell them about this," Cameron requested. "You almost had to tell me because I was there when it happened and you were still having problems dealing with it but if you're really moving on like you said then you'll just cause problems with your new relationship."

"You're probably right," Chase agreed. "The last thing I need is someone else deciding that I had no control over my actions because House is just that manipulative."

"I see you're still upset about that," Cameron noted quietly. "I really wasn't trying to insult you, you know. I was just trying to deal with the fact that you wouldn't come start over with me and since I was leaving that was the end. I was looking for someone else to blame. House…is an easy target."

"Too true," Chase agreed.

There was silence on the line.

"You know, I didn't even call you to talk about this," Cameron told him. "But I suppose since we haven't really talked that it was almost inevitable that we would."

"So what did you call to talk about?" Chase asked her.

"Who is Dr. Kelly and why did House 'accidentally' call me that yesterday?" Cameron asked.

Chase groaned. "He did what? Oh, I wish I could say that I was surprised. Why was he calling you anyway?"

"He said he was just calling to check up on me and make sure that I really didn't want to come back since there was a place opening on his team again and Cuddy insisted on making him hire a woman,"

Cameron explained. "Which from the way he puts it makes it seem more like Cuddy is interested in filling a quota than in hiring a competent doctor. But that might just be House. We talked for awhile but it was pretty clear that he just wanted to call me 'Kelly.' Now answer the question."

Chase exhaled loudly. "Right. Well, your replacement, Thirteen-"

"Wait, you guys are still calling her that?" Cameron asked incredulously. "Seriously, that's kind of old."

Chase shrugged. "Well, I don't know why everyone else does it but I just hate her name. 'Remy Hadley'…I don't know what her parents must have been thinking. Since she's fine with being called Thirteen, I'm sticking with that. Anyway, she kind of went missing-"

"Kind of?" Cameron interrupted again.

"Oh, you know. She left a note saying she was taking a leave of absence and then lied about where she was going so we can't track her down and pester her into returning," Chase summarized quickly.

"You know, that kind of thing never actually happens in Chicago," Cameron informed him. "Being away for a year, I think I'm actually getting used to being normal again. Good thing, too. I wouldn't want to be un-hirable like Foreman."

"Cuddy has been on House's back lately about hiring a replacement," Chase continued. "And since they're dating, he's been more inclined to at least pretend to be listening to her than before. He made me hire someone. Dr. Kelly. She was a psychiatrist who wasn't really up to the challenge and so she quit and we've gone out a few times."

"So House is calling her the new me?" Cameron guessed.

"Oh, definitely," Chase agreed. "Especially when he accused her of stealing your clothes, had a field day with her once she showed some basic morality, and wouldn't stop talking about how I wanted to date her. It's really no big deal, though, and it's not like she looks or acts anything like you so he was just reaching."

"I see," Cameron said. "I wouldn't care if she did, though, as long as it wasn't clear you were just trying to date Allison 2.0. If you have a type and we both happen to fit it then that's perfectly normal and healthy."

"Yeah, I suppose Dr. Kelly worked out better than Dr…. Whoever Foreman hired," Chase commented.

"You don't even remember who he picked?" Cameron asked, surprised. "Was she really that bland?"

"Oh, no. Well, maybe. She was fired roughly ten minutes after starting," Chase clarified. "And after she agreed to start immediately and in the middle of the night, too. House was just trying to deflate Foreman's ego."

"You'd think if it hasn't been managed by now it's not going to happen," Cameron mused. "House is persistent, though. So she sue?"

"Of course," Chase replied. "He said, on speaker phone, that she was fired to take Foreman down a peg. He practically admitted to wrongful termination. Then Taub tried to hire an actual sane and competent doctor but apparently he was too caught up in House's mind games and frightened her off."

"You know, I'm beginning to think that he's just not going to hire anybody until Dr. Hadley gets back," Cameron opined.

"Probably," Chase agreed. "Unless Cuddy places someone on the team. So much for him being fine with change and firing me."

"Well, he _has_ to deal with the change of me leaving even if you and Foreman came back," Cameron replied. There was a buzzing noise in the background. "Oh, that's the door. I've got to run. It was nice talking to you, Robert."

"Yeah," Chase echoed as he hung up. "It was."

Note: So I know that discussing a murder that Chase committed and that Cameron knows about (especially such a high-profile one) over the phone is perhaps not the best plan but I wanted to have them discuss it and they _were_ on the phone. Fortunately for them, no one was tapping their phone or otherwise eavesdropping.

Review Please!


End file.
